1955Mythical State Champions

1955: An Unbeaten Corbin Team Claims a State Championship

Long before Kentucky high school football championships were decided through a playoff system, before championship weekends at Commonwealth Stadium and Cardinal Stadium and decades before the Redhounds of 1976, 1980 and 1982 brought championship trophies home to Corbin, there was the team of 1955.

It was a team that never lost.

Under head coach Bill Tucker, Corbin completed an 11 and 0 season and was recognized as a state champion, giving the Redhounds one of the defining seasons in the history of a football program that was already deeply rooted in the community. Led by junior halfback Calvin Bird, Corbin overwhelmed much of its schedule, defeated opponents from different parts of Kentucky and finished the season unbeaten.

The championship came during an era considerably different from the one Kentucky high school football fans know today. There was no KHSAA postseason tournament that brought teams through district, regional, semifinal and championship rounds. The playoff system that eventually produced official championship games had not yet arrived. State champions could instead be determined through polls, rankings and the judgment of observers after the regular season and the state’s established bowl games had been completed.

For that reason, Corbin’s 1955 championship is commonly described as a mythical state title. The word can be misleading to modern readers. It does not mean the team or championship was imaginary. It describes the manner in which champions were recognized before Kentucky had a playoff capable of settling the matter on the field through a statewide tournament.

Corbin did nearly everything a team could do to remove doubt.

The Redhounds finished 11 and 0.

They opened the season with a 25 to 6 victory over Bell County and followed with a 33 to 0 shutout of Henry Clay. Pineville was next, and Corbin won 39 to 0. The Redhounds then faced Louisville Manual and came away with a 7 to 0 victory, giving Corbin consecutive shutouts against two of the state’s better known programs.

By the time the season reached its middle portion, Corbin had established itself as much more than a strong team from southeastern Kentucky. The Redhounds were becoming one of the teams against which the rest of the state had to be measured.

Middlesboro fell 46 to 0.

Barbourville lost 76 to 0.

Somerset managed a touchdown, but Corbin scored 45 points in a 45 to 6 victory.

Danville provided one of the more competitive games on the schedule, but Corbin again found a way to win, defeating the Admirals, 34 to 20. Williamsburg followed and suffered a 61 to 6 loss. Corbin then shut out Knox Central, 56 to 0.

Ten games had been played.

Corbin had won all 10.

The Redhounds had scored at least 30 points eight times and at least 45 points five times. Six opponents had failed to score a single point. The schedule included established programs such as Henry Clay, Manual, Middlesboro, Somerset and Danville, and none had been able to beat Corbin.

At the center of it all was Calvin Bird.

Bird was only a junior in 1955, but there was already little question that Corbin had one of Kentucky’s most gifted high school football players. He possessed the speed to turn an ordinary play into a touchdown and became the centerpiece of a Corbin offense that spent much of the season running away from opponents.

Bird finished the season with 157 points, establishing a Kentucky scoring record, and his performance earned him captaincy of the Louisville Courier-Journal All-State team. The accomplishment was even more remarkable because Bird still had another high school season remaining.

His impact went beyond statistics.

Larry “Cotton” Adams was nine years old in 1955 when he went to watch the Redhounds play. More than six decades later, Adams could still describe one of the first plays he remembered seeing. Bird took an opening kickoff and returned it for a touchdown, hurdling a defender around midfield on his way to the end zone.

For a young boy growing up in Corbin, it made an impression that never disappeared.

Adams eventually became a Redhound himself, playing on Corbin’s 1962 state runner up team. He later returned as a coach, assisted on the championship teams of the 1970s and eventually became head coach. In 1982, Adams led Corbin to a state championship of his own.

His memory of the 1955 team remained vivid.

That says something about what those Redhounds meant to Corbin.

The championship season was not simply a collection of scores printed in a newspaper. In a community where high school football had already become part of the rhythm of fall, the players were people younger boys knew and watched. The accomplishments of one generation established expectations for the next.

Bird became the most recognizable star of the team, but the 1955 championship was not the work of one player. The roster included players whose connection to the Redhounds continued long after their final high school game. Winton Boone, another member of Tucker’s championship team, later played at Western Kentucky. Robert Howard, who wore No. 52 for Corbin, also went on to play college football at Western Kentucky. Decades later, members of the team continued gathering for reunions, maintaining the bond created during an unbeaten season in Corbin.

The final challenge of 1955 came against Newport in the Recreation Bowl.

The Recreation Bowl had become an important part of Kentucky high school football by that time, bringing together successful teams in an era when postseason bowl games carried considerable weight. Corbin’s appearance against Newport gave the unbeaten Redhounds another opportunity to strengthen their claim as one of Kentucky’s best teams.

Corbin won, 27 to 7.

The victory completed the perfect season.

Eleven games had been played.

Corbin had won every one of them.

The final numbers reflected just how dominant the Redhounds had been. Corbin scored 449 points over the course of the season while allowing only 39. The Redhounds averaged more than 40 points per game while surrendering fewer than four. Six opponents were shut out, and only Danville reached 20 points against Corbin.

There was no playoff bracket waiting after the Newport game. There was no semifinal to play the following week and no championship game scheduled at a neutral stadium.

Corbin’s work was finished.

The Redhounds had gone through the season without losing, and their performance earned them recognition as state champions.

For Bird, the season became only part of a remarkable athletic career. He returned for his senior year and continued putting up scoring numbers that made him one of the most celebrated high school athletes in Kentucky. After graduating from Corbin, he went on to play football at the University of Kentucky, where he became a prominent running back for the Wildcats.

Bird was part of an extraordinary Corbin family whose influence eventually reached well beyond southeastern Kentucky. His brothers Jerry, Billy and Rodger also competed collegiately, with the Bird name becoming closely associated with both Corbin and University of Kentucky athletics.

Calvin Bird, however, would always have 1955 attached to his Corbin legacy.

He was the junior star of an undefeated state championship team.

The championship also helped establish a standard that remained long after the players had graduated. Corbin did not win another state title immediately. The Redhounds reached the championship game in 1962 and finished as state runner up after losing to Danville, 13 to 6. It would be another 14 years before Corbin returned to the top under Archie Powers.

When that happened in 1976, the championship was decided in a completely different way. The KHSAA playoff system was in place, and Corbin defeated Mayfield, 6 to 0, at Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington to win the Class 2A championship.

The Redhounds won again in 1980 and 1982.

Those championships came with playoff brackets, championship opponents and trophies earned in a final game. They are easier for modern football fans to understand because the system resembles the one still used today.

The 1955 championship belongs to another time.

Understanding that time is essential to understanding why the team remains so important in Corbin football history.

A high school football season in 1955 was followed through Friday night games, newspaper reports, radio, word of mouth and statewide rankings. There was no internet carrying every score across Kentucky within seconds. There were no computer ratings. There was no five week postseason tournament waiting to determine a champion.

Reputation had to be earned one Friday at a time.

Corbin earned one.

The Redhounds beat Bell County by 19 points. They shut out Henry Clay by 33. They shut out Pineville by 39. They beat Manual in a defensive struggle. They overwhelmed Middlesboro and Barbourville. They beat Somerset, Danville, Williamsburg and Knox Central.

Then they beat Newport.

Nobody beat Corbin.

The season also left behind something that cannot be measured by the championship designation alone. It gave another generation of Corbin children a team to imitate in backyards and schoolyards. Adams was one of them. He watched Bird take a kickoff and race toward the end zone in 1955. Seven years later, Adams was wearing a Corbin uniform and playing for a state championship himself.

Twenty seven years after watching the 1955 Redhounds as a boy, Adams coached Corbin to the 1982 state championship.

That is how football tradition survived in Corbin.

The players changed. Coaches changed. Generations passed through the school. The expectations remained.

For the men who played in 1955, there was never a championship game where they could line up against another finalist and settle the matter over four quarters. That opportunity did not exist.

What they could do was beat everyone placed in front of them.

They did.

Eleven games.

Eleven victories.

Six shutouts.

Four hundred forty nine points scored.

Thirty nine allowed.

An unbeaten season and a state championship.

Long before the modern playoff era gave Corbin championship teams in 1976, 1980 and 1982, Bill Tucker’s Redhounds had already established what a championship season could look like in Corbin.

In 1955, it looked perfect.

Corbin finished 11 and 0.

The Redhounds were state champions.